10 Hard Rock Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

10. Ace of Spades - Motorhead

The road to metal music was still an uphill battle at the start of the '80s. While there were certainly people willing to fly the flag for metal like Judas Priest, other acts like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple had too many varied influences to categorize them into one specific subgenre of rock. As the decade turned a corner though, Motorhead showed us just how reckless a rock and roll band could really sound.

It's tough to really categorize what Ace of Spades is on the surface. Even though it has the usual trappings you would find in your typical rock affair, there's something much more forceful in the delivery of these tunes, which comes directly from the warped mind of Lemmy Kilmister. Being a disciple of guys like Little Richard, Lemmy found ways to make his tone sound much more nasty than his predecessors, from the rumbling bass guitar to the booze swigging vocals he spewed out of his throat on every single track.

Whether you're blazing through the title track or The Chase is Better Than the Catch, it's like you're listening to these men become almighty rock and roll troubadours, laying waste to any town they come across. Aside from just rock and roll, this kind of delivery left a big impression on the thrash metal scene, with the tempos and rabid dog vocal style finding its way into bands like Metallica and Megadeth.

Motorhead may not have set out to be the toughest metal act around, but when you play rock and roll with this much power, you're tapping into something much larger than rock.